Tet

For decades now, the Pho Binh noodle cafe, tucked behind a tangle of parked motorcycles on Ly Chinh Thang Street, has served its trademark dish — "peace noodles." A survivor of Ho Chi Minh City's relentless real estate makeover, the seven-table eatery ladles out bowl after steaming bowl of the soup, made with strips of beef and piles of rice noodles, fresh basil and cilantro. Many of the appreciative customers are unaware of the very unpeaceful plot that unfolded long ago in the family rooms upstairs.

Customers crowded into the Tan Hoang Huong bakery in Santa Ana several days before the lunar new year. Gifts of candies and dried fruit wrapped in red cellophane lined the walls. And the sweet fragrance of banh chung , rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves and stuffed with mung beans and pork belly, filled the air. Ailinh Nguyen had already picked up nine banh chung that she planned to give to her parents and friends, but realized she wanted one more for herself in time for Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year.

The nostalgia comes in waves when Trinh Tuyet Tran remembers celebrating the lunar new year in her home country, where firecrackers popped and lion dancers paraded down the streets of Saigon for weeks. Her parents, uncle, aunt and siblings lived under one roof, and the entire country was caught up in the spirit of Tet -- sweeping out the sorrows of the past and welcoming in the new year.

At least 12 U.S. troops were killed during a 48-hour period ending Wednesday, putting October on track to be the deadliest month for Americans in Iraq since Marines stormed insurgent-controlled Fallouja in November 2004. The latest surge in attacks on American military personnel has claimed the lives of 71 troops so far this month, and comes as a sharp rise in civil warfare between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni sects has left hundreds dead over the last week, including at least 43 Wednesday.

Standing in the warm afternoon sun, the smell of incense hanging in the air outside Garden Grove's Vietnam Temple, Kim Hoang gently rubbed lemon slices against a tarnished brass urn. "I just need it to shine for the new year," said Hoang, 70, concentrating on an annoying black smudge. "Everything has to be new, clean and fresh."

Nervous and down to his last dollar, Wayne Nguyen shook the plastic bowl, then slammed it on a game board. Nguyen, and those around him hollering and waving their fists, believe that the three etched dice in the bowl can forecast their luck for the Year of the Rooster, which begins today. "Three little fishes! Three little fishes! Open up! Open up!" they chanted in Vietnamese. The dice spilled out. One had a deer, the other a chicken, and the third had the fish they had wished for.

Janice Gibbons is a financial analyst, but Saturday she was a Vietnamese-food vendor in Garden Grove, hawking sweet corn and barbecued pork on a stick. "The rest of the year I don't really get to be Vietnamese," said Gibbons, 28, who uses her maiden name, Cao, when she plunges back into the Vietnamese community. She emigrated from Vietnam almost 20 years ago, and now lives in San Jose. "This is a chance to connect with my people," she said, "to be around my people."

After stopping at four banks Wednesday to find crisp new currency, Tina Nguyen settled for dirty, crumpled $2 bills. Nguyen was hunting for a stack of new $1 bills, a traditional gift of good luck to celebrate the Lunar New Year. "Money is money at any other time," said Nguyen, 38, of Westminster. "But for the Lunar New Year, it has to be new because it represents luck for the rest of the year."